“World of Tomorrow” draws big emotion with little lines

Hertzfeld’s animated short, “World of Tomorrow,” confronts the issues that humanity faces within the world of technology. Courtesy: Facebook/World of Tomorrow

The 2015 Academy Award nominated short film, “World of Tomorrow,” directed by Don Hertzfeldt, takes viewers on an existential journey in just 16 minutes.

The adult animation starts off with simple stick figures over a mundane background that provide the audience with no idea where the film is headed.

A little girl called Emily follows around her future clone through a confusing adventure filled with frightening technological advances in humanity’s future.

The juxtaposition of the little girl, who is simple and innocent, with the clone, who is so far advanced that she has to steal memories because she no longer creates her own, is as poignant as it is saddening.

The clone explains that humanity has advanced to the point where memories are given at birth; no longer requiring the effort needed to be made throughout a lifetime. Humanity is frantically and constantly moving (just like the images in Hertzfeldt’s film) and there is no time to create memories the old way. Even though this is a technological advance, she still has the capacity to feel sadness that she is no longer creating her own memories.

The film very quickly goes from confusingly cute to immensely personal.

Emily and her clone are a mere scribble – they don’t quite seem human and ultimately, they are not human. The film nods at how dehumanized people will become if they continue to rely on technology at the current pace. Hertzfeldt manages surprising emotion in a short amount of time.